Patents who are intubated in a hospital setting, such as an ICU, have difficulty communicating with other people, such as doctors and nurses. Various methods of communication, such as the use of a pad of paper and a writing instrument such as a pen or pencil, have been used under such circumstances.
Also known in the prior art is Patak et al., U.S. Pat. No. 6,422,875, issued Jul. 23, 2002, which is said to disclose a device for communicating with a voice-disabled patient, which includes, generally, a housing having a display surface, indicia on the display surface that may be utilized by the patient to indicate the status and needs of the patient, and a marker that the patient may use to convey his or her status and needs to a third party. One embodiment includes a clipboard having two eraser-board surfaces and an erasable marker connectable to the clipboard. Another embodiment includes a lap-sized housing for a computer and a touch pad-activated screen. In both embodiments, the indicia includes a series of descriptive words and phrases indicating the status and needs of the patient, and graphical representations of anterior and posterior views of a human body with descriptive words correlating to common symptoms of specific parts of the body.
Also known in the prior art is Chinese Pat. No CN 201130476 Y, titled “ICU patient-nursing communication card”, granted Oct. 8, 2008, which is said to disclose an ICU nurse-patient communicating card, comprising a faceplate and a transparent plastic sheet covering the faceplate, which is characterized in that a plurality of catchwords or images, which are respectively arranged at both sides of the faceplate and specified according to the mentality and physiology of patients and environment, can accurately reflect the characteristic information of the patient, so the nurse can attend on the patients with good pertinence, purposiveness and scientificity, and provide a safe and best service for the patient with less error. The ICU nurse-patient communicating card has the advantages of simple structure, easy production, and effective and convenient use.
Also known in the prior art is Harris, U.S. Pat. No. 7,880,722, issued Feb. 1, 2011, which is said to disclose a communicator device which allows improved functions. The communicator device may have real movable keys which are reconfigured when the device is used in different orientations. In a sideways orientation, the device has a rectangular aspect ratio which is wider than it is tall. And in that sideways orientation, the buttons are reconfigured to the orientation they would normally have. The communicator device may also be reoriented into the other position, in which case the assignment and the indication on the buttons is also correspondingly changed. The communicator device may have a projector to project videos, and the communicator device may be able to retrieve numbers and e-mails to be used for communications from a repository on the Internet or from a search engine on the Internet.
Also known in the prior art is Traughber et al., U.S. Pat. No. 8,183,987, issued May 22, 2012, which is said to disclose a method and system for advanced patient communication. According to one embodiment, a computer-implemented method comprises providing a patient communication device through which a patient communicates a first message from a hospital bed. The first message is received at a central processing server. The first message is processed to identify an urgency level of the message. One or more additional messages are generated based on the first message. The one or more additional messages are transmitted to specific health care provider devices of specific health care providers who are expected to respond to the patient.
Also known in the prior art is Traughber et al., European Patent Application Publication No. EP 2660744 A1, titled “A method and system for advanced patient communication”, published Nov. 8, 2013, which is said to disclose a method and system for advanced patient communication. According to one embodiment, a computer-implemented method comprises providing a patient communication device through which a patient communicates a first message from a hospital bed. The first message is received at a central processing server. The first message is processed to identify an urgency level of the message. One or more additional messages are generated based on the first message. The one or more additional messages are transmitted to specific health care provider devices of specific health care providers who are expected to respond to the patient.
There is a need for a communication apparatus and method that improves on existing methods of communication by non-speaking patients.